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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

A tale of two bags

Well, 2 months since my last update is better than 12 months, right? I think that I might be really bad at this blogging thing. Ugh. Oh well. I need to just get over it and move forward, so here we go with the big highlights of my blogging hiatus...

In my last post I mentioned that I have had some amazing opportunities in the last year. It's true. I've had the chance to meet my favorite designer, Tula Pink, at Sew Expo 2014 in Puyallup, WA back in late February/early March. She is beyond amazing. She is completely funny and absolutely brilliant. I was blown away to have a chance to sit and chat with her about random stuff. On top of that, she showed me how she does her English Paper Piecing (EPP) projects. Who better to learn from than the person that designed the fabric and quilt pattern that you are planning to use?!?!

While we were chatting, I pulled out my phone to show her some pictures of stuff that I had made with her fabric. She saw a bag that she liked (Annie Unrein of Patterns by Annie's A Place for Everything bag), and asked me if I would make one for her if she sent me some fabric. Can you guess how many hundredths of a second that it took me to say yes? If you said next to no time flat, you'd be wrong. I think I sat there for a few seconds and tried to wrap my brain around the idea that THE TULA PINK was asking me to make something for her. Wow. I was utterly powerless to resist. It's Tula.

Now we have to fast forward to the end of April. I received a package in the mail with the fabric to make the super special sew-lebrity bag. She had told me that she wanted to use fabric from her upcoming collection (that was still unannounced), MoonShine collection (which will be released in August/September 2014). As a super fan, just having the opportunity to make something for Tula was mind blowing, so I'm sure you can imagine how incredibly lucky I felt (and still feel) to have the chance to play with fabric from an unreleased collection.

I was fairly terrified to cut into the fabric, but I got over it (honestly, I probably stood there with my rotary cutter in hand for 20 minutes just staring at it after I had carefully planned out how it needed to be cut). The bag came together beautifully, and I nervously shipped out the package. Thanks to the beauty of overnight delivery, it arrived safely the next morning. To make a long story slightly less long, she said she loved it. I can't tell you how relieved I was to read those words. Wow.

Anyway, Tula was preparing to depart for the industry trade show, International Quilt Market, the following day, so she packed up a bunch of her supplies into her new bag and off they went. She had said that she was going to take the bag with her, but I was pretty much floored when I started seeing posts on Instagram from her Schoolhouse event that had the bag in the shot. There have been some amazing pictures in the last few months that show off the bag, so here are a few of my favorites that I've seen:

After being a hit at Quilt Market, Tula carried the bag to Camp Stitchalot, an awesome retreat hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics, where it caught the eye of another one of my favorite sew-lebrities, Katy Jones of I'm a Ginger Monkey. I couldn't say no to her either because I am a big fan. Anyway, she sent me some fabric from the Arizona collection by April Rhodes for Art Gallery fabrics, and off to work I went. An agonizingly long wait for shipping between Seattle and England ended with another very happy lady. I love the picture that she posted on Instagram of Katy with her bag, so here it is for your viewing pleasure:

So that's how I've spent a pretty good chunk of the last few months prior to my starting to work part time at my favorite local quilt shop a couple of weeks ago, but there will be more on that later as well as other things that are in the works over here in my little corner of the sewing world. More to come soon!